Take Me Away
by SilenceofShadows
Summary: Princess Luna here. May you now know how ponies' lives end... WARNINGS: character death, and a form of religion
1. Introduction

AN: Hello, everyone! Silence of Shadows here to tell you that a new story has come to mind for me! This introduction is really short, but I promise that the actual chapters will be much longer.

* * *

Hello.

I am Princess Luna.

I'm sure you know me. I am your Princess whom presides over the night.

You know that it is my duty as the nightly Princess to lower the sun and raise the  
moon just as is my sister, Celestia, to lower the moon and raise the sun. This cycle  
has been and likely will be for a long time before and to come.

But there is somethine you do not know about me.

This story will explain how life ends for the ponies of Equestria.


	2. Prologue

**Prologue**

* * *

Another day, another set of ponies to deliver. My magic radiates off of my horn as I slowly lower myself from the sky, the sun mimicing me as I set it to sleep to make way for my night. I open my eyes, yes the sun has set. Turning to the east, I close them again. My horn's magic radiates again, grabbing hold of an unseen celestial object: the moon. My wings flare out, interrupting my flowing mane's steady rhythm of flow as I lift myself into the air. The winds shift and blow my mane and tail toward the south, as I use the whole of my powers to raise the moon into course. As my magic is threadbare to give out, the moon starts to move by itself, and my magic is spared and lets go. A bead of sweat runs down my forehead and I land on the cool earth again, folding my wings. My eyes open again. The magic to raise the stars isn't as hard or complicated. With a simple, slow toss of my head, the stars twinkled into the sky. There. Task one complete, bring the night.

However, the next task is soul-wrenching as it sounds. Once again, magic helps me into the state to do this. I cast a charm on myself so that I become transparent and semi-permeable. My wings flare out again, flapping stronger and stronger until I am in the air again. From the balcony in our castle, a takeoff is easy. I get enough momentum to send me over the edge, and I dive toward the ground. The momentum builds and the wing whips through every last feather and strand of hair in my mane. With a mighty flap of my wings, I break from the downward fall and lift myself higher into the sky. I relish the feeling of the wind on my face and in my mane in such a grim task set upon me. I turn and head to sweep the streets of Canterlot. My shadow is less apparent in my moonlight due to my transparent state, and I land beside the first for tonight's balcony door. My semipermeable state allows me to slide right through the glass on the door, and right into the bedroom of Mrs. Gentlehooves. Poor mare. I took her husband last year, and now it seems that it's time for her to join him. My horn radiates an off-black colour as the spell lifts Mrs. Gentlehooves's soul from her weak and old body. The spirit herself looks as she did twenty years ago, long, glossy red mane and tail done in a celtic bun on her head and a wrapped ponytail on her rump. Her light green coat, which used to be ragged and wrinkley, is now healthy and fit. Her blue eyes shine with the same light and love for life that she has always had.

"Pr-Princess?" she asks, amazed and obviously scared.

"Yes, Daisy," I reply, the silent question hanging in the air, as obvious as it was.

She took a look down at her hooves, then back at her tail, seeing that all of her colour and youthful beauty was restored. "It's...- it's time?"

I nod grimly.

Mrs. Gentlehooves sighs. "Well, I guess I've lived a full life, and I've been waiting to see everyone who's waiting."

I manage a smile. Yes, that is the only happiness in this job. "Shall we leave, Daisy?"

She nods. "Yes, I'm eager to see everypony again."

"Yes. It is amazing to me how you outlived everypony. Now you've come to your end. I'm sure they'll be waiting eagerly for your arrival," I say to lift the dark mood as I lift the Earth pony spirit from where she stood and take off into the air. I take us through the wall, leaving the earthly bod behind as I take her straight up, into the clouds, and beyond heights that any pegasus dare climb. The trip was silent, and as we near the gates to paradise, the clouds part and we break through into the realm of the dead. The clouds fit together again, and we land, my magic letting go of Mrs. Gentlehooves so she can stand on her own. Immediately, an Earth stallion of brown tones breaks from the crowd that gathers at the entrance whenever a new soul is due. The stallion gallops straight to Mrs. Gentlehooves.

"Daisy! Daisy!" he calls as he runs toward her. I smile as the reunion I knew would come plays out before my eyes.

"Cott? Cott!" she calls back. The two ponies collide with hooves wrapped around each other and they hold each other in that moment, and the many ponies around them begin to stomp on the clouds, causing a loud applause at their reunion. They stand together, rubbing noses and cheeks, and many ponies of all races gallop toward them, greeting and congratulating them both. I look over the huge crowd, recognising every pony that I guided to this paradise. I sink through the clouds, back into the living world, spreading my wings as I break fromt he clouds. I soar over the land, seeing the layout of our vast Equestria from my height. Deaths nowadays are less frequent than they used to be. Of course, ponies didn't stop having children since then. Sadly, in crowded areas of Equestria, I have brought a crowd of ponies' spirits to paradise. Gladly, tonight was not such a night. My next stop: Fillydelphia.

As I approach the sleepy town, I see who I am to collect here. A small filly is being coddled by a grieving mother, afraid for her daughter's life. Deaths like this tug at my heartstrings, even now, after doing it for thirty years. I flutter my wings, landing before the pink mare. I know this mare. She has three other foals: two fillies and a colt, and it seems by her size that she has yet another on the way. My sister and I visit her and her husband's farm every month to buy apples from her. She recognises me, of course, but she doesn't know what I have to do.

"Princess Luna!" she gasps, seeming relieved. "Have you come to save my daughter?"

This question stabs me in the heart. Only ponies that witness what I do know why I arrive later on, like Mrs. Gentlehooves. I've not taken anypony before her before, but now it seems I must. "No...I am not," I tell her.

Her face immediately falls, and she pulls her dying filly close again, comforting her as coughs wrack her small, frail body. My horn radiates, and, as her coughing subsides, I lift the spirit out of the now-dead body of the sickly filly. As the last breath leaves, the young, glowing spirit of the filly stands beside me. She must have only been six years old. She now looks as healthy as ever, though she is far from happy. Her mother can see the magic glow from my horn around the body as her daughter leaves the mortal form. Tears roll down her face, and she looks at me with a hint of betrayal in her gaze.

"Did...- she...- Did you just...-?" she asks, not able to say it.

"Yes. It's her time to come with me, now," I tell her. She seems to understand, and she gives me a knowing but broken look.

"I hope she makes it there okay," she says.

"She will, don't worry," I tell her reassuringly, flapping my wings to take off, once more, into the sky to bring her to paradise. We reach the cloudy gates, and again a crowd is there, though nopony rushes out to greet her, but a few fillies and colts that I brought due to their early passing approach and welcome her, taking them into the crowd and accepting her. As I look over and watch her leave, I realise something that wasn't there when she was lying beside her mother, dying: a cutie mark. A bright red apple with a heart inside it had appeared on her flank. I smile. All ponies without a cutie mark when they die earn one as they enter paradise.

I'm glad that there are only those ponies to take tonight. I take off, back toward Canterlot, and look out over the lands from the balcony connected to my chamber. Most of tonight was taken up by delivering those ponies, but I try to reach at least a few ponies' nightmares and soothe them before Celestia lowers the moon and raises the sun.


End file.
